Quotes about blessing
page 4

“I did have regrets these past six months,” he told me quietly. “I found it a curse as much as a blessing, all that time to think. About the things I could have said, that I should have told you . . .”

Karen Chance American writer

Source: Tempt the Stars

Thinking, Time, Past

“The gift was not large as money goes, and my need was not great, but the spirit of the gift is beyond price and leaves me blessed and in debt.”

Robert Fulghum book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Money

“God will not pour fresh, creative ideas and blessing into old attitudes.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

God, Idea

“well that's convenient, i guess blessings are easier to come by than i thought. maybe i should ask for blessings on my mission against all those who wear white after labor day”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

“If it was a sin for you to choose me… then I would go to the Devil himself and bless him for tempting ye to it.”

Diana Gabaldon book Dragonfly in Amber

Source: Dragonfly in Amber

“What a blessing it is to love books. Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such substantial and unfailing returns as books and a garden.”

Elizabeth von Arnim (1866–1941) Australian writer

Source: The Solitary Summer

Love, Books

“I love the silent hour of night,
For blissful dreams may then arise,
Revealing to my charmed sight
What may not bless my waking eyes.”

Anne Brontë (1820–1849) British novelist and poet

Source: Best Poems of the Brontë Sisters

Love, Dreams, Night, Good Night

“There are in this world blessed souls, whose sorrows all spring up into joys for others; whose earthly hopes, laid in the grave with many tears, are the seed from which spring healing flowers and balm for the desolate and the distressed.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe book Uncle Tom's Cabin

Source: Uncle Tom's Cabin

World, Hope, Soul, Spring

“Upon the whole, a contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.”

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright

No. 574 (30 July 1714).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

World

“Accept the children the way we accept trees—with gratitude, because they are a blessing—but do not have expectations or desires. You don’t expect trees to change, you love them as they are.”

Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer

Love, Children, Way, Tree

“Before you came into my life, I believed that God had abandoned me. Now I know that He has blessed me beyond measure.

~Sir Bannor”

Teresa Medeiros (1962) American writer

Source: Charming the Prince

Life, God

“She closed one eye and looked at me and said, "I know there is a blessing in this somewhere."

It is worth living long enough to outlast whatever sense of grievance you may acquire. Another reason why you must be careful of your health.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

Health, Sense

“O what a blessed day that will be when I shall… stand on the shore and look back on the raging seas I have safely passed; when I shall review my pains and sorrows, my fears and tears, and possess the glory which was the end of all!”

Richard Baxter (1615–1691) English Puritan church leader, poet, and hymn-writer

Pain, Fear, Tear, Rage

“Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed”

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet

Letter, written in collaboration with John Gay, to William Fortescue (23 September 1725).
A similar remark was made in a letter to John Gay (16 October 1727): "I have many years magnify'd in my own mind, and repeated to you a ninth Beatitude, added to the eight in the Scripture: Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed."
Variant: Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
Context: "Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed" was the ninth Beatitude which a man of wit (who, like a man of wit, was a long time in gaol) added to the eighth.

Disappointment

“We are all fools blessed with the knowledge that certain events will come to pass no matter what path we take to get there. The wise ones follow their angels while they may.”

Alethea Kontis (1976) American writer

Source: Enchanted

Fools, Angels, Knowledge

“The emotional health of a village depended upon having a man whom everyone loved to hate, and Heaven had blessed us with two of them.”

Barry Hughart book Bridge of Birds

Source: Bridge of Birds

Love, Hate, Health, Dependency

“To be yourself requires extraordinary intelligence. You are blessed with that intelligence; nobody need give it to you; nobody can take it away from you. He who lets that express itself in its own way is a "Natural Man."”

U.G. Krishnamurti (1918–2007) Indian philosopher

Part 2: The Mystique of Enlightenment
The Mystique of Enlightenment (1982)
Source: The Mystique of Enlightenment: The Radical Ideas of U.G. Krishnamurti

Way, Intelligence, Nature

“If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“Be happy, noble heart, be blessed for all the good thou hast done and wilt do hereafter, and let my gratitude remain in obscurity like your good deeds.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

Happiness, Heart, Gratitude

“I have come to realize that destiny can hurt a person as much as it can bless him.”

Nicholas Sparks book Message in a Bottle

Source: Message in a Bottle

Hurt, Personality

“Bless thy simplicity, Tess”

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English novelist and poet

Source: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

“How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

People

“The problem is, hope is the thing that can’t be reined in by rules or pinned down by bitter experience. It’s a blessing and curse.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: Flamecaster

Hope, Problem

“Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Source: Evidence: Poems

“But I think this: that whatever prices I've paid, whatever sorrows I shoulder, well, I have blessings, too. Not just my family now, but the others-the ones who have died… They're with me still. They're here…”

Wally Lamb book She's Come Undone

Source: She's Come Undone

Family, Thinking

“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting—a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Though attributed to Emerson in Edwards' A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908), p. 37, this quote originates in Politics for the People (1848) by Charles Kingsley.
Misattributed

God, Beauty, Flowers

“Bless people when they revile you. Think how much good they are doing by helping to stamp out the false ego.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

People, Thinking, Help, Falseness

“Percy," my mom said. "I give you my blessing."
"Be safe brother!" Tyson pleaded.
"Enchiladas!" Grover said. I wasn't sure where that came from, but it didn't seem to help much.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Moms, Help

“Blessed are the meek, for to them we shall say "attaboy".”

Christopher Moore book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Source: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

“Blessed are the dead that the rain falls on.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Dead

“We are never so poor that we cannot bless another human being, are we? So it is that every evil, whether moral or material, results in good. You'll see.”

Louise Erdrich book The Round House

Source: The Round House

Evil

“I'd wanted a real kiss, something to remember, but i'd long ago learned not to be picky with farewells. They weren't guaranteed or promised. You were lucky, more than blessed, if you got a goodbye at all.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Variant: But I'd long ago learned not to be picky in farewells. They weren't guaranteed or promised.
You were lucky, more than blessed, if you got a good-bye at all.
Source: The Truth About Forever

Kiss, Learning

“Feeling no remorse must be a blessing when all you have are your memories”

Jon Ronson (1967) British journalist, documentary filmmaker, radio presenter and nonfiction author

Source: The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry

Feeling, Memory

“I love you because all the loves in the world are like different rivers flowing into the same lake where they meet and are transformed into a single love that becomes rain and blesses the earth.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

Love, World

“Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.”

Barbara De Angelis (1951) American psychologist

Love, Relationship, love

“If we want to keep the blessings of life coming to us, we must learn to be grateful for whatever is given.”

Harold Klemp (1942) American writer

Source: The Language of Soul: Keys to Living a More Meaningful Life

Life, Learning

“These young men and women, longing to socialize their democracy, are animated by certain hopes which may be thus loosely formulated; that if in a democratic country nothing can be permanently achieved save through the masses of the people, it will be impossible to establish a higher political life than the people themselves crave; that it is difficult to see how the notion of a higher civic life can be fostered save through common intercourse; that the blessings which we associate with a life of refinement and cultivation can be made universal and must be made universal if they are to be permanent; that the good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain, is floating in mid-air, until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.”

Jane Addams (1860–1935) pioneer settlement social worker

"The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements" http://www.infed.org/archives/e-texts/addams6.htm; this piece by Jane Addams was first published in 1892 and later appeared as chapter six of Twenty Years at Hull House (1910) <br class="br">Context: These young people accomplish little toward the solution of this social problem, and bear the brunt of being cultivated into unnourished, oversensitive lives. They have been shut off from the common labor by which they live which is a great source of moral and physical health. They feel a fatal want of harmony between their theory and their lives, a lack of coördination between thought and action. I think it is hard for us to realize how seriously many of them are taking to the notion of human brotherhood, how eagerly they long to give tangible expression to the democratic ideal. These young men and women, longing to socialize their democracy, are animated by certain hopes which may be thus loosely formulated; that if in a democratic country nothing can be permanently achieved save through the masses of the people, it will be impossible to establish a higher political life than the people themselves crave; that it is difficult to see how the notion of a higher civic life can be fostered save through common intercourse; that the blessings which we associate with a life of refinement and cultivation can be made universal and must be made universal if they are to be permanent; that the good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain, is floating in mid-air, until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.

Life, Women, Men, People

“luck runs out but blessings never do!”

E. Lynn Harris Invisible Life

Source: Invisible Life

“I've played the powerless in too many dark scenes. I was blessed with a birth and a death and I guess I just want some say in between”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist

Talk To Me Now
Song lyrics
Variant: I was blessed with a birth and a death, and I guess I just want some say in-between.

Death, Birth

“Forget the noose. Forget the Iron Maiden. Forget the electric chair or the guillotine. The mind was mankind's most painful torture chamber, the blessed liberty to cogitate offering either doom or salvation, depending on one's disposition.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: How to Kill a Rock Star

Pain, Dependency, Forgetting

“And what of the dead? They lie without shoes
in their stone boats. They are more like stone
than the sea would be if it stopped. They refuse
to be blessed, throat, eye and knucklebone.”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

"The Truth the Dead Know"
All My Pretty Ones (1962)

Lie, Shoe, Sea, Dead

“Makes us appreciate blessing, not be greedy and mean and fat like Polyphemus.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

“There is nothing to winning, really. That is, if you happen to be blessed with a keen eye, an agile mind, and no scruples whatsoever.”

Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) British filmmaker

“However many blessings we expect from God, His infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and our thoughts.”

John Calvin (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer

God

“You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love (2006)
Context: Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.

“Most people tend to think the best of those who are blessed with beauty; we have difficulty imagining that physical perfection can conceal twisted emotions or a damaged mind.”

Dean Koontz Odd Thomas

Source: Odd Thomas

People, Beauty, Imagination, Thinking

“Calamity is a blessing when it brings one to God.
--- Hadassah”

Francine Rivers book A Voice in the Wind

Source: A Voice in the Wind

God

“Blessed be you, mighty matter, irresistible march of evolution, reality ever newborn; you who, by constantly shattering our mental categories, force us to go ever further and further in our pursuit of the truth.”

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881–1955) French philosopher and Jesuit priest

Source: Hymn of the Universe

Truth, Reality

“I have heard men talk about the blessings of freedom," he said to himself, "but I wish any wise man would teach me what use to make of it now that I have it.”

Walter Scott book Ivanhoe

Source: Ivanhoe

Men, Freedom

“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”

Hamilton Wright Mabie (1846–1916) American writer

Love, World, Season, Christmas

“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”

Willie Nelson (1933) American country music singer-songwriter.

[The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart, XII, Nelson, Willie; Pipkin, Turk, 159240197X, 2006, Gotham]

Life

“But dying's part of the wheel, right there next to being born. You can't pick out the pieces you like and leave the rest. Being part of the whole thing, that's the blessing.”

Natalie Babbitt book Tuck Everlasting

Source: Tuck Everlasting

Parting

“If America leads a blessed life, then why did God put all of our oil under people who hate us?”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

Life, God, Hate, People

“God will bless you,' said he, 'you are an angel since you take care of the flowers.'
'No,' she replied. 'I am the devil, but that's all the same to me.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Miserables

God, Angels, Flowers

“Cursed?" I offered, my voice croaky because of my unshed tears.
"It isn't cursed." John said deliberately, rearranging the chain around my neck, "if you're wearing it. It's blessed.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Underworld

Tear

“She is more beautiful than I have words for. And last night, I was blessed beyond measure to serve her.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Awakened

Beauty, Night

“Lord, my hands were made for blessing, but not my feet!”

Giovannino Guareschi The Little World of Don Camillo

Source: The Little World of Don Camillo

“Someone once told the Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor that it is more open-minded to think that the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar is a great, wonderful, powerful symbol.

Her response was, “If it’s only a symbol, to hell with it.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Hell, Thinking

“Secret to what?"
"Secret to shutting you up," he said. "I just have to beat you till you're half-dead, then give you chicken soup and"--he raised his hands--"blessed silence.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

Secret, Silence, Dead

“We are healed to help others. We are blessed to be a blessing. We are saved to serve, not to sit around and wait for heaven.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

Waiting, Help

“… every time you make a decision to be less than what God wants for you, you're denying yourself some of God's blessings. It's up to you. You can live a life with God's blessings, or just exist with all the consequences of choosing wrong.”

Terri Blackstock (1957) American writer

Source: Last Light

Life, God, Decision, Time

“I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness.

All seems beautiful to me.

Whoever denies me, it shall not trouble me;
Whoever accepts me, he or she shall be blessed, and shall bless me.”

Walt Whitman book Fulles d'herba

Source: Leaves of Grass

Beauty

“What a blessing it is to love books.”

Elizabeth von Arnim (1866–1941) Australian writer

Source: The Solitary Summer

Love, Books

“Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

Dreams

“Wilf: God bless the cactuses!
The Doctor: That's cactI.
Alien: And that's racist!”

Russell T. Davies (1963) Screenwriter, former executive producer of Doctor Who

God

“Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

"No Religion is an Island", p. 264
Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)
Context: Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy. And yet being alive is no answer to the problems of living. To be or not to be is not the question. The vital question is: how to be and how not to be?
The tendency to forget this vital question is the tragic disease of contemporary man, a disease that may prove fatal, that may end in disaster. To pray is to recollect passionately the perpetual urgency of this vital question.

“if you find one true friend in your life, you're richer than most. If that one true friend is your husband, you're blessed."

She paused. "And if that one true friend is your sister, don't feel bad. At least, she can't divorce you.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The First Phone Call from Heaven

Life, Feeling, Sister

“What a blessed if painful thing, this business of being alive.”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Source: NOS4A2

Pain, Business

“No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissastifaction; a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”

Martha Graham (1894–1991) American dancer and choreographer

Time

“I try hard not to judge anyone, and I try to bless everyone who is a part of my life, particularly anyone with whom I am having any problems”

Jim Henson (1936–1990) American puppeteer

Source: It's Not Easy Being Green: And Other Things to Consider

Life, Problem, Parting

“Bless the Maker and His water.
Bless the coming and going of Him.
May His passage cleanse the world.
May He keep the world for His people.”

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer

People, World, Water

“Children might or might not be a blessing, but to create them and then fail them was surely damnation.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Barrayar (1991)

Children

“If you find one true friend in life, you're richer than most. If that one true friend is your husband, you're blessed.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The First Phone Call from Heaven

Life

“Sometimes we are blessed with being able to choose
the time, and the arena, and the manner of our revolution,
but more usually
we must do battle where we are standing.”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

Source: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Time

“It's a shame you know," he called over his shoulder.
"What's a shame?" Duncan asked.
"That I didn't capture her first."
Duncan smiled. "Nay, Edmond, it was a blessing. God's truth, I would have taken her from you.”

Julie Garwood (1946) American writer

Source: Honor's Splendour

God, Truth, Smile

“Mothers arms are made of tenderness, And sweet sleep blesses the child who lies therein.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

Sleep

“If it’s not meeting a need, turn it into a seed. Remember, we will reap what we sow. When you do good for other people, that’s when God is going to make sure that His abundant blessings overtake you.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

God, People

“Go on with your work as usual, for work is a blessed solace.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.”

William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom

Attributed in The National elementary principal https://books.google.com/books?id=T8YVAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Then+will+our+world+know+the+blessings+of+peace.%22&dq=%22Then+will+our+world+know+the+blessings+of+peace.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1iNCMvcHLAhUMcz4KHXvcCt84MhDoAQgfMAE (1948) - Volume 28 - Page 34; a similar statement has also become attributed to Jimi Hendrix: "When the power of love overcomes love of power the world will know peace." A similar quotation is found in My Heart Shall Give A Oneness-Feast (1993) by Sri Chinmoy: "My books, they all have only one message: the heart's Power Of Love must replace the mind's Love Of Power. If I have the Power Of Love, then I shall claim the whole World as my own … World Peace can be achieved when the Power Of Love replaces the Love Of Power." An even earlier statement of Chinmoy is found in Meditations: Food For The Soul (1970): "When the power of love replaces the love of power, man will have a new name: God." <br class="br">Disputed <br class="br">Variant: We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.

Love, World, Peace, Time

“It's a blessing Madame Gamache and I had at our wedding. It was read at the end of the ceremony.(Apache Blessing)”

Louise Penny book Bury Your Dead

Source: Bury Your Dead

Wedding, Reading

“The most significant gifts are the ones most easily overlooked. Small, everyday blessings: woods, health, music, laughter, memories, books, family, friends, second chances, warm fireplaces, and all the footprints scattered throughout our days.”

Sue Monk Kidd (1948) Novelist

Health, Books, Family, Music

“Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.”

George Eliot book Impressions of Theophrastus Such

Source: Impressions of Theophrastus Such, Ch, 4 (1879); comparable to. James Russell Lowell 1871: Blessed are they who have nothing to say, and who cannot be persuaded to say it. https://books.google.de/books?id=YRmn-_vXZ58C&pg=PA102&dq=persuaded

“Yes, the Gorgon has dried your tears.'
Well, she has opened my eyes too; it's a delusion to say she blinds people. What she does is the contrary-she fastens their eyelids open, so they're never again in the blessed darkness.”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence

People, Tear

“Having someone who understands is a great blessing for ourselves. Being someone who understands is a great blessing to others.”

Janette Oke (1935) Canadian writer

Understanding

“As we're fighting through the issues of the day, let's just keep in mind that we rise above the challenges of the day and understand that it's not just us and our constituents and the country, the United States, that's counting on us to be successful. People all around the world believe in freedom are counting on us as well, and we will deliver for them. That's why I am so honored to be back here in the House serving with you. God bless each and every one of you, and God bless the United States of America.”

Steve Scalise (1965) American politician

Speech to Congress https://www.c-span.org/video/?434564-1/us-house-passes-faa-funding-extension-264155 (September 28 2017)

God, People, World, Understanding

“Bless God, he went as soldiers,
His musket on his breast;
Grant, God, he charge the bravest
Of all the martial blest.

Please God, might I behold him
In epauletted white,
I should not fear the foe then,
I should not fear the fight.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

Time and Eternity, p. 234
Collected Poems (1993)

God, Fear, Fight

“He willeth to be perceived; and His appearing shall be swiftly sudden; and He willeth to be trusted. For He is full gracious and homely: Blessed may He be!”

Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress

The Second Revelation, Chapter 10
Context: It is God’s will that we have three things in our seeking: — The first is that we seek earnestly and diligently, without sloth, and, as it may be through His grace, without unreasonable heaviness and vain sorrow. The second is, that we abide Him steadfastly for His love, without murmuring and striving against Him, to our life’s end: for it shall last but awhile. The third is that we trust in Him mightily of full assured faith. For it is His will that we know that He shall appear suddenly and blissfully to all that love Him.
For His working is privy, and He willeth to be perceived; and His appearing shall be swiftly sudden; and He willeth to be trusted. For He is full gracious and homely: Blessed may He be!

Home, Appearance

“Don't blame me, Pongo,' said Lord Ickenham, 'if Lady Constance takes her lorgnette to you. God bless my soul, though, you can't compare the lorgnettes of to-day with the ones I used to know as a boy. I remember walking one day in Grosvenor Square with my aunt Brenda and her pug dog Jabberwocky, and a policeman came up and said the latter ought to be wearing a muzzle. My aunt made no verbal reply. She merely whipped her lorgnette from its holster and looked at the man, who gave one choking gasp and fell back against the railings, without a mark on him but with an awful look of horror in his staring eyes, as if he had seen some dreadful sight. A doctor was sent for, and they managed to bring him round, but he was never the same again. He had to leave the Force, and eventually drifted into the grocery business. And that is how Sir Thomas Lipton got his start.”

P.G. Wodehouse book Uncle Fred in the Springtime

Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939)

God, Dogs, Soul, Boy

“The duty of its citizens, then, appears to me too plain to admit of doubt. All should unite in honest efforts to obilterate the effects of the war and restore the blessing of peace. They should remain, if possible, in the country; promote harmony and good feeling, qualify themselves to vote and elect to the State and general legislatures wise and patriotic men, who will devote their abilities to the interests of the country and the healing of all dissensions. I have invariably recommended this course since the cessation of hostilities, and have endeavored to practice it myself.”

Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) Confederate general in the Civil War

Letter to Governor Letcher
Variant: The interests of the State are therefore the same as those of the United States. Its prosperity will rise or fall with the welfare of the country. The duty of its citizens, then, appears to me too plain to admit of doubt. All should unite in honest efforts to obliterate the effects of war, and to restore the blessings of peace. They should remain, if possible, in the country; promote harmony and good feeling; qualify themselves to vote; and elect to the State and general Legislatures wise and patriotic men, who will devote their abilities to the interests of the country, and the healing of all dissensions. I have invariably recommended this course since the cessation of hostilities, and have endeavored to practice it myself.

Men, Hostility, War, Peace

“Like Christianity, Buddhism explained suffering. In forms that established themselves in China, Buddhism offered the same sort of comfort to bereaved survivors and victims of violence or of disease as Christian faith did in the Roman world. Buddhism of course originated in India, where disease incidence was probably always very high as compared with civilizations based in cooler climates; Christianity, too, took shape in the urban environments of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria where the incidence of infectious disease was certainly very high as compared to conditions in cooler and less crowded places. From their inception, therefore, both faiths had to deal with sudden death by disease as one of the conspicuous facts of human life. Consequently, it is not altogether surprising that both religions taught that death was a release from pain, and a blessed avenue of entry upon a delightful afterlife where loved ones would be reunited, and earthly injustices and pains amply compensated for.”

William H. McNeill (1917–2016) Canadian historian

Source: Plagues and Peoples (1976), Ch.3.

Love, Life, Death, Pain

“I’ve known that there have been a kind of select group of people, amazing die-hard supporters, even through some of the more, shall we say, odd films. These people, bless them, have stuck with me the whole length of the road. To say that you appreciate it is not nearly enough. It’s part of the essence, or fuel, of what keeps you going.These people are my boss; they’re the ones who keep me employed. A couple of times, they could have said, Let’s abandon him. And they haven’t. You don’t want to let them down.”

Johnny Depp (1963) American actor, film producer, and musician

Quoted in Steven Daly, "The Maverick King," Vanity Fair (November 2004)

People, Support, Time, Parting

“Won't you guide me through the dark night of the soul
That I may better understand your way
Let me be just and worthy to receive
All the blessings of the Lord into my life.”

Van Morrison (1945) Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician

Give Me My Rapture.
Source: Song lyrics, Poetic Champions Compose (1987)

Life, Way, Soul, Understanding

“God bless him. He will be remembered forever.”

Arthur Rubinstein (1887–1982) Polish-American classical pianist

Alexander Schneider — reported in Lon Tuck (August 29, 1983) "Emperor at the Keyboard", The Washington Post, p. C1.
About

God

“Blessed are they who, in the calm moments of retirement, of worship, of prayer, of silent waiting, have found that to "the weary and heavy laden " Christ can indeed give rest; that compared with the heavy bondage of the world or the exactions of human systems, His yoke indeed is easy, and His burden is light.”

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815–1881) English churchman, Dean of Westminster

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 98.

World, Light, Waiting, Christ

“Human learning, with the blessing of God upon it, introduces us to divine wisdom; and while we study the works of nature the God of nature will manifest himself to us; since, to a well-tutored mind, “The heavens,” without a miracle, “declare his glory, and the firmament showeth his handy-work.””

George Horne (1730–1792) English churchman, writer and university administrator

George Horne (bp. of Norwich.) (1799). Discourses on several subjects and occasions. Vol. 1,2, p. 357; As quoted in Allibone (1880)

Wisdom, God, Nature, Study

“Sultan Mahmud at first designed in his heart to go to Sijistan, but subsequently preferred engaging previously in a holy war against Hind, and he distributed arms prior to convening a council on the subject, in order to secure a blessing on his designs, of exalting the standard of religion, of widening the plain of right, of illuminating the words of truth, and of strengthening the power of justice. He departed towards the country of Hind, in full reliance on the aid of Allah, who guiding by his light and by his power, bestowed dignity upon him, and gave him victory in all expeditions. On his reaching Purshaur (Peshawar), he pitched his tent outside the city…”

Mahmud of Ghazni (971–1030) Sultan of Ghazni

About the defeat of Jaipal. Tarikh Yamini (Kitabu-l Yamini) by Al Utbi, in Elliot and Dowson, Vol. II : Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, 8 Volumes, Allahabad Reprint, 1964. pp. 24-25.
Quotes from Tarikh Yamini (Kitabu-l Yamini) by Al Utbi

War, Truth, Religion, Justice